Avoiding Advocate Burnout

I got into prevention early. Yes, I was one of those nerds in high school preaching to my peers about the dangers of alcohol use and crusading against other high-risk behaviors. It was exhausting. When I got to college, hoping there would be a more sane view of alcohol use, I only found disappointment. If anything, the problems were more pronounced in college. I didn’t want anything to do with prevention at that point. Eventually, I came back around to this line of work, but I can still recall feeling like I hadn’t made a dent in the larger issue and had wasted so much of my teen years.

Especially when addressing large societal problems, it’s easy for advocates and prevention professionals to become discouraged and feel burnout. Below are a few suggestions to help prevent that from happening.

1.     Shrink the change
Tackling something like alcohol abuse, racism, or any large problem is daunting. By thinking of it in terms of the entirety of the problem, we set ourselves up for disappointment and, often, the feeling of being overwhelmed.

For example, most of my work over the past decade has been in tobacco control. Tobacco is an expansive topic and an ongoing health problem for people the world over. On a smaller scale, we work to reduce secondhand smoke exposure, as well as the number of people using tobacco. Scaling down further, we work toward tobacco-free policy on campus. Even with that, though, we encourage people not to focus on “passing the policy” as your primary goal. Focus more on building relationships on campus and gaining buy-in for such a policy. When a groundswell of support is there, the policy will pass more easily.

Reframe it in a way so that the problem is the reason you are doing your smaller, more immediate work. Regularly recap and celebrate the more modest steps and appreciate how it ultimately benefits the larger issue.

2.     Separate yourself from the issue
It’s important to be invested in the issue, and it’s admirable to devote one’s life to a cause. At the same time, tying one’s self-worth and psyche to the success, progress, or failure of a cause can be catastrophic. You’re still human, and you have a “you.” Plus, you won’t be of much use to the cause feeling overwhelmed and consumed by it.

3.     Breathe
No, really. Breathe. Deeply.

4.     Take time for self-care
We all need time to ourselves to rest and recharge. Connect with friends or hobbies that bring sheer joy. Sometimes just taking a few minutes in the day, to picture one’s self in the ideal vacation spot, breathing deeply, can make all the difference.

5.     Celebrate the little victories
It may sound trite, but building on little successes along the way helps to feed momentum. Maybe your cause got a few more likes on social media this week – great! How can you build on that new interest? 

6.     Learn from the failures
One of the key phrases from the recently ended Mythbusters TV show was, “Failure is always an option.” This grates against many sports clichés that state the opposite. I like to think of it as a realistic, grounded approach. Plus, it dissipates the pressure that failure-aversion creates. The idea is that much of life is experimentation and trying out different ways of achieving a goal. With that comes some degree of failure. And that’s perfectly okay. Learn from it and use it to inform what you try next.

7.     Hang out with others who are excited
At certain points in doing advocacy work, we can feel as though we are simply yelling into the wind, unsure if anyone is listening. That can get discouraging quickly. Finding others who are passionate and excited about causes (not necessarily our own) can help reignite the fire for us. Plus, it helps us feel as though we are not alone.